Grassley in question-answer session with South Tama High students

March 28, 2014

"Friends of her are worried about Mrs. Clinton (former First Lady and U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton) touring Iowa's 99- counties at age 69 (if she enters the race for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination). I'm going to "tweet" I'm 80 years old and doing it," U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) quipped during a stop at South Tama High School on Wednesday, March 19. Grassley is renown for "having visited every Iowa county every year" since being elected to the Senate in 1980 which has prompted other candidates to adopt the same strategy.

Grassley took part in a question and answer session with some 70 South Tama High School government and ALM students in the classes of Seth Koch and Brent Bagnall on Wednesday. His visit put his county count for 2014 at around 40 he said. The senator earlier had been invited by South Tama Agricultural Science teacher Terri Guenther-Mayer to attend the Importance of Agriculture Expo on Feb. 19 at the high school but was unable to attend.

Here's a sampling of some of the questions posed by students and Grassley's responses:

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Closing of Iowa Juvenile Home / State Training School for Girls in Toledo? Said he had no firm opinion. Offered "If what you read in the newspapers is to be trusted" there might have been justification for the closing. However, he said, "Senators have a tendency to talk about things they don't know anything about."

Immigration? Explained he voted against the recent bill passed in the Senate because it did not provide for "border security" which he believes is necessary. He said an amendment to the bill which he offered failed. He said the bill was now in the U.S. House and predicted a bill will emerge from there which he can support.

Gay marriage? Said his position is marriage is between "one man and one woman."

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U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) conducts a question and answer session with South Tama High students on Wednesday, March 19 in the Little Theatre.Chronicle/John Speer

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley responds during a question and answer session at South Tama High School in Tama on Wednesday, March 19.Chronicle/John Speer